Under the Banner of Heaven - Historical Unit
Art Director
Under the Banner of Heaven is a true crime series based on the dangerous outcomes of extremist religious groups, specifically the the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The historical unit, which I Art directed, was the story about how the Book of Mormon was created and the history behind the LDS church.
We shot the historical unit in various locations around Calagry, Alberta. We were recreating historical moments and therefore our research team was paramount in getting every detail as accurate as possible. From those details, our art department started building sets to mimic those of the past. The prairies of Canada match those of Ohio and Illinois quite well, so we played with our landscapes as much as possible. We also built and dressed entire towns to reflect those in the 1820’s-1900’s, along with some classic moments such as Kirtland, Haun’s Mill and the Carthage Jail.
KIRTLAND
Kirtland was a foundational town in Mormon history, which we recreated by re-envisioning an existing film town North of Calgary. We built some framing structures to make the town appear as though it is in construction, we built the interior of Joseph’s home, and the interiors of various other sets inside the existing buildings. Much time was spent painting and dressing this town to make it feel subdued yet welcoming and up and coming. Our greens team even added in some “Tim Burton” trees for interesting shadows to be cast on the streets.
WAGON CIRCLE
There were many massacres in mormon history, yet the Mountain meadows massacre was one of the bloodiest. It was a mass murder of approximately 120 members of an immigrant wagon train and countless Paiutes, organized by the Nauvoo legion. This scene was one of epic proportions and included hundreds of extras. We created the majority of the wagon circle at the base of a large valley, and many other vignettes throughout the landscape to shoot close up scenes. The night before we filmed we had the first snow of the year which covered the valley, and since this scene historically occurred in September in Utah, snow would not do. Therefore, we had a helicopter come on the morning of shooting and blow away all of the snow in our scene, then our greens crew did the touch ups on the ground. It was a massive undertaking yet we made our crew call just in time.
PIONEER TRAIL
The pioneer trail was a long journey full of hardship where mormons fled from Nauvoo, Illinois, through 5 states, to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1846-1847. We shot these scenes in Stoney Nation, Alberta, across their breath taking landscapes of rivers, fields and forests. A lot of logistics went into accurately displaying what the wagons would look like, how many livestock and people would be a part of them and how to distinguish it from the various other wagon trains in the show. With an incredible team we managed to depict their journey in an accurate fashion.
CARTHAGE JAIL
Carthage jail is an iconic building in mormon history, with a museum replica and various art representations already existing. For these reasons, this set had to be built to a tee. Our research team and set designer, Sara-Jo Mhic An Tsaoir, gathered every detail from the window placement to the bullet hole locations on the upstairs door. We wanted any historian to look at our set an mistake it for the actual jail.
NAUVOO & INTERIORS
The town of Nauvoo and and the Nauvoo Expositor are another two iconic moments in LDS history, yet we had a little more leeway with the overall design since the artwork associated with them varies greatly. There was a scene where the Nauvoo legion began burning everything in the Expositor because of an article that had been released. We transformed en existing western town into our own, by dressing every shop, adding signage to all the buildings and skinning the Expositor building with brick. We also had our spfx team rig together a bonfire that we could burn furniture over, including a large printing press that we build multiples of. Along with the large exterior town dressing, we also dressed many interiors, adding wallpaper, new doors and lots of set dressing. Everything was to feel ominous and lived in, and show the power of the owners who live there.
